High Trust, High Performance
Building a culture of trust is crucial to a company who wants to achieve peak performance.
As Charlie Munger said, very little process, just reliable people operating in a seamless web of deserved trust.
So how do we build a high trust environment?
Stay lean and decentralized for as long as possible. Build the company that is authentic to the founding beliefs and vision. If the company operates outside of its original principles, there will be an inherent lack of trust in the organization.
To do this, trim down the org chart. Leadership & ICs. That’s it. Avoid middle management if possible. When companies have multiple layers of structure in the org chart, it creates a whisper down the alley effect. It becomes nearly impossible to stay aligned.
Keep it simple: Leadership sets the founding beliefs, direction, and establishes the culture of the company. ICs help to make it a reality. Bonus points: the more hands on leadership is, the better. ICs can also help shape the vision. This interplay is where the magic happens. The goal is complete and total alignment.
No one actually becomes a “people manager”. As soon as “people managers” are introduced, everything falls apart.
Follow this mantra:
- Stay as lean as possible
- With no middle management
- For as long as possible
- To avoid bureaucracy